Police in Lahore, Pakistan tortured and killed a 35-year-old Christian man, setting off a firestorm of protest in the city.
The family of the slain man, Rakha Shahzad, stormed the police facility demanding justice for his killing. The agents claimed the Christian man had drugs and alcohol in his system as well as selling them and died of a “heart attack” during questioning.
The family says that Shahzad was arrested because he was a Christian.
Local Christian officials say that Shahzad’s death is just the latest in ongoing campaigns of hate and intimidation against the Christians of the region by Islamic officials.
“The whole world is still deeply shocked and outraged for the lynching of the Christian couple in Kasur, but violence continues: it is urgent to repeal laws that are routinely used to persecute Christians and ensure justice and legality, starting with the work and the behavior of the police and public officials,” Christian lawyer Mushtaq Gill told The Christian Post.
At least 44 people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of the Christian couple. Gill hopes that police officials in Lahore will be investigated and charged in the death of Shahzad.
Two pastors in Bangladesh are facing two years in prison because they were preaching Christ where Muslims could hear them.
Arif Mondol of the Faith Bible Church of God in Lalmonirhat and his co-pastor were conducting a baptism with their congregation of 40 residents when a mob of about 200 Muslims stormed into their building and began attacking the pastors.
“More than 100 Muslims headed by local Jamaat-e-Islami party members and Muslim clerics gathered at the house and started barking questions at the pastors: why did they propagate Christianity in the locality and convert some of them,” a source told Morning Star News. “The pastors replied that it did not take any permission from any authority to propagate any religion and convert people to any religion.”
Local police arrested the pastors and every Christian in the building while doing nothing to the Muslims who caused the incident.
Mondol and his co-pastor have been released on bail pending a trial.
Bangladesh does not have laws against evangelism, so the pastors are being charged with “Hurting Religious Sentiments.”
Rioters burned down multiple businesses and destroyed property throughout the night after hearing the grand jury’s findings that Michael Brown charged at Officer Darren Wilson resulting in the officer’s actions being justified.
KMOV-TV reported that the majority of the businesses that were destroyed by the looters were minority owned.
A large block of businesses on West Florissant Avenue were burned to the ground including Walgreens, Little Caesars Pizza, Title Max, Family Dollar, Autozone and O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Fire department officials say at one point last night there were so many fires started by the supporters of the Brown family that they did not have enough manpower and equipment to fight them all.
The rioters were shooting so much that the Federal Aviation Administration put in place a temporary ban for aircraft over the area out of fear they would be struck. Flights into the St. Louis Airport had to be diverted around the area.
Police reports say 80 people were arrested as a result of the riots.
North Korea surprised the world by releasing an American Christian who had been held illegally in the country for the last six months.
Jeffrey Fowle, who had forgotten his Bible in the bathroom of a restaurant, has been held since mid-May on charges that he was using his tourist visa as a way to commit Christian proselytization.
“We can confirm that Jeffrey Fowle has been allowed to depart the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and is on his way home to re-join his family,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fowle spoke to reporters last month and said that while he was good his situation was getting desperate.
The White House said that while they were very happy for Fowle’s release, they are still demanding the release of two other captured Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller.
A Chinese pastor who was arrested during the recent government crackdown on Christians is thanking God for the “opportunity of going to jail.”
Huang Yizi, 40, is facing up to seven years in prison for his speaking out against the government’s destruction of Christian churches. He was arrested in August when police dragged him from his home in front of his wife and two children.
The official charge is “gathering crowds to disturb social order.”
Beijing rights lawyer Zhang Kai says Yizi is doing well and that from what he can see there is no basis to charge him.
“As a defense lawyer and judging from the evidence so far I don’t think Huang’s actions constituted any crime. Personally, I believe Huang’s arrest is directly related to the general crackdown on churches in Zhejiang.”
Chen Guangcheng, a human rights activist in China, said that the communist government is actually more dangerous than terrorist group ISIS.
“I believe that we have underestimated the threat from the Communist regime like China. They are many, many times more dangerous than the terrorist groups out there. I believe the people will realize later this is true,” Chen said.
At least seven Christians are in jail after Laotian officials raided the home where they were having worship.
The Christians were meeting for lunch and worship at the home of Pastor Sompong Supatto when the chief of Boukham Village and security officials stormed the building. The pastor was placed in handcuffs and leg stocks.
They were charged with violating an order from local officials for Christians to stop gathering for worship.
The Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom confirmed the arrest and said the local authorities simply said they don’t want Christians to gather for worship.
“The HRWLRF urges the Lao government to respect the right of the Lao people to religious freedom and the accompanying rights as guaranteed in the Lao constitution and the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Laos in 2009, upholding the individual’s right to adopt a religion/belief of choice as well as the right to manifest that religion/belief in a corporate worship (Article 18),” a HRWLRF spokesman wrote. “Any form of coercion impairing the freedom to have and manifest one’s religion/belief of choice is condemned in the Covenant.”
This is the latest in a series of attacks on Christian freedom in the village. On June 24, a pastor and four others were arrested on murder charges after a sick woman they prayed over later died.
Chinese officials raided house churches on Sunday and arrested more than 100 Christians for worshiping in a manner the state considered illegal.
Children were among the arrested, being taken from their parents.
The raid in the Guangdong province included over 200 police officers who stormed into the home during the service. The move is believed to be part of a government crackdown on Christianity within the country.
“We don’t know exactly why they raided our church,” a local believer told watchdog group International Christian Concern. “The government does not want us to get together and worship as a church.”
Multiple surveys show that Christianity is growing fastest in the world within China.
An ICC spokesman says most of the people have been released but the incident has been traumatic, especially on the children.
“What the government here is doing is so barbaric,” local church leader Chen Zhi’ai told CNN.
An elite unit of the Israeli Defense Forces announced they had captured a Hamas operative who was planning a terrorist attack near Hebron.
The arrest led to Israeli police and the IDF carrying out a sweep in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that led to the arrest of nearly 60 people who were connected to the plot or to inciting riots.
The IDF did not release the name of the suspect or the details of the attack saying that the information was withheld for national security reasons.
The arrest is the latest in an IDF crackdown on those leading riots or attacks in Israel. The investigations into many of the arrested suspects had been placed on hold or in a lower priority because of the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Tbe IDF said that 12 suspects were arrested late Monday and Tuesday nights in the West Bank on top of the almost 60 arrested today.
Officials say that rioting has increased in the Jerusalem area as Arab groups took advantage of decreased IDF presence.
A New York woman pushed her baby from a subway car onto a platform and then casually turned and got back on the train, leaving her child defenseless on the subway platform.
New York police arrested the woman about 12 hours later thanks to a tip from a person who passed the woman on the street and recognized her from security footage aired on local television news.
Police have not released the name of the woman and charges had not been flied as of Tuesday morning. Police sources say that the women attributed her abandoning of the child to not being able to handle the amount of care a child required.
The 6-month-old girl was taken to St. Luke’s hospital after she was found and determined to be in good health and condition. She’s currently in the care of the Administration for Children’s Services.
In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim says her newborn daughter is physically handicapped because she was forced to give birth with her legs shackled to a wall.
Ibrahim, who is currently seeking refuge inside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, gave her first interview after being released from her incarceration on charges of apostasy and adultery.
Ibrahim said that she was shackled with chains, not cuffs, and that her legs were forced together by the chains. The guards would not release the chains so that she could open her legs for the birth and her daughter’s legs were injured during the birth.
“I couldn’t open my legs so the women had to lift me off the table,” Ibrahim told the Guardian. “I wasn’t lying on the table.”
Ibrahim said it wasn’t clear yet if the child will need help walking as she grows older because of the injuries.
Sudan is forcing Ibrahim to stay in the country claiming she forged her papers to leave. Ibrahim told the Guardian that she has a document from South Sudan because that is where her husband is from and that is proper under international law. The family has visas to enter the United States when she is able to leave the country.
